Early Morning Visitors
by songbook
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan have three visitors at four in the morning when a blue phone box crash lands in the attic.


**A/N: **This follows my story 'Love Always, Harry'.

Thirteen Bannerman Road was dark and quiet at four o'clock in the morning. All three occupants were fast asleep in their beds. It should have been a normal night that should have led to a normal morning. However, nothing was ever normal at this house, not even at this odd hour. At that very moment, before the sun had a chance to rise over Ealing, a whirling and cringe worthy scraping noise came from the attic of Thirteen Bannerman Road. For two of the occupants of the home, it was a familiar noise.

"Sarah?"

"I hear it." There was a shuffle of sheets as Sarah Jane Smith rolled over to snuggle against her bed companion. "Maybe if we pretend to be asleep, he'll go away."

"He just landed in your attic. I have a feeling he's not going away." Harry Sullivan placed a kiss on her forehead. She let out a groan in response. "Plus any minute now-"

"Sarah Jane! Harry!" The voice of Sky Smith could be heard on the other side of the door. Sarah Jane reluctantly pushed herself upright in her bed. Harry had already swung his feet over the edge of the bed. "There's something going on in the attic!"

"Come in Sky," said Sarah Jane as Harry pulled on his robe. The wide-eyed teenager bounded into the room. Her adoptive mother reached for her own robe and tried to shake the sleep from her eyes. Whatever Sky had to say was drowned out by a series of crashes and muttered curses from upstairs.

Harry and Sarah Jane exchanged a worried glance. She grabbed her sonic lipstick off the nightstand and told her daughter, "Stay here. Don't leave our room."

Both of them hurried to the attic. When they got there, it was chaos. Smoke filled the room and two figures were lying on the floor. Upon further investigation, Sarah Jane could see that there was a young man lying on the floor with a red-haired young woman kneeling over him, both hands pressing firmly on his chest. The smoke was coming from the blue telephone box in the middle of the room.

Harry ran over to the window and threw it open. Sarah Jane rushed to the two people on the floor. "What happened?"

The woman looked up at her, clearly she had realized where they were. Or at least for the first time in a while she was at a strange place with helpful people. "I don't know...something...something exploded-"

"Where is he? Where's the Doctor?" Sarah Jane's eyes glanced over the young man who was clearly in distress. There was blood on his shirt and on her hands. "Harry!"

A brief look of surprise shot through the young woman's eyes, but she quickly replied, "He's still in the TARDIS."

Harry knelt down on the other side of them and reached out his hand. "Ma'am, I'm a doctor let me see."

"It was shrapnel from whatever exploded," muttered the man on the floor.

Sarah Jane pushed herself to her feet and started toward the TARDIS. Harry looked up from his patient as if to protest. "Sarah, please don't-" was all he got out before she went in, trying to fan the thick smoke out of her way. He tightened his jaw in frustration but turned back to the wound.

"What's your name, son?"

"Rory. I don't think it hit anything major. It missed the subclavian artery, but it still hurts like crazy." Rory grimaced in pain.

"Good thing you didn't remove the shard." With a practiced hand, he found the small piece of metal in the wound. "The bleeding would be much worse."

"He's a nurse," said the young woman.

"This is my wife, Amy." Rory motioned with his right hand. Amy stared back at him as if saying, 'This isn't the ideal time for introductions'.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am. Although, I think we'll both agree it would be better under different circumstances. Now let's see what we can do to get you patched up."

Loud coughing came from the TARDIS as Sarah Jane pulled a soot covered Doctor out by the arm. Both were stumbling through the smoke, which seemed to finally be thinning. He was muttering to himself about this and that, completely unaware of the scrapes and cuts that Sarah Jane was fussing over.

"I need a dimensional cap for the helmic regulator. Where are we?" he said as he straightened his bowtie.

Sarah Jane raised her eyebrow as she answered. "Earth. Ealing. 2012."

"Ealing?" He glanced down at her, as if truly seeing her for the first time. He seemed to take in the night clothes and robe. "Sarah Jane? What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same question, Doctor. This is my house." She was trying very hard not to laugh at the look of utter confusion on his face. "Seems you've run into a bit of trouble."

"Wasn't that bad. Something exploded." He glanced down at the oddly shaped piece of metal in his hand. "I need a cap that can't be found in this century or this planet. Do you have a mobile phone I can borrow?"

She nodded, "On the nightstand next to my bed." He gave her a short kiss on the forehead and bounced toward the door of the attic.

Sarah Jane turned her attention back to Harry and the two strangers only to find that the young woman had disappeared. Kneeling next to Harry, she asked, "How is he?"

"He'll be fine. I sent Amy downstairs for a medical kit. It's still underneath the sink in the kitchen right?"

"Yes."

"How is the Doctor?"

"I think he's starting to lose it with old age." Harry chuckled. She looked down at the man lying on her attic floor with a bleeding chest wound. "I'm Sarah Jane Smith. This is Harry Sullivan, in case he didn't have a chance to introduce himself."

"I'm Rory. I'd shake your hand, but it's covered in some blood." He gave a weak smile which she returned. At that moment, Amy returned with the medical kit and Harry set to work.

"Where's the Doctor?" she asked, looking nervously at the TARDIS.

"He went looking for my mobile. Apparently, he needs a replacement part." Sarah Jane stood up to shake Amy's hand. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Just another day with the Doctor I guess."

"Just talk to Sarah Jane. I promise I'm allowed to be here!" Both women turned to see the Doctor enter the attic with one hand on the back of his head and the other held high in the air with a phone in it. Behind him, with the tip of an unopened umbrella pressed into his back, was Sky. "Sarah, do you realize there is an adolescent Fleshkind in your bedroom?"

Sarah Jane burst out laughing. Between giggles, she managed to say, "Doctor, meet my daughter, Sky Smith."

"You're _the_ Doctor? Awesome!" exclaimed Sky as her eyes lit up, but then immediately looked guilty. She tucked the umbrella behind her back. "I'm sorry I hit you in the head. I thought you were a thief."

"Daughter? I thought you had a son?"

Still laughing, Sarah Jane answered, "I do. Luke is at University. I've had Sky for about almost a year now. If you called once in a while, you'd know these things."

"Nice to meet you, Sky Smith." The Doctor smiled down at the young girl. "An umbrella. Very good choice of weapon for defending yourself. I used to carry one myself. Came in pretty useful, now that I think about it. Maybe I should find that old thing."

"Did you crash?" asked Sky, eyeing the smoking TARDIS wearily.

"Crash? No. She knew exactly where she was going." He winced as he rubbed the back of this head, evidence that the young girl had wacked him pretty hard. "Now if I can only remember the number to Torchwood..."

"Speed dial nine," interrupted Sarah Jane.

"Torchwood?" asked Amy as the Doctor pressed a few buttons and raised the phone to his ear.

"Captain Jack should have what I'm looking-" A strange look came over his face and he quickly hung up. "That was Chinese take out."

"Oh, you must have grabbed Harry's. Sky run down and grab my mobile." The young girl nodded and left.

"Harry? Harry who?" asked the Doctor, intently studying the mobile phone.

Harry looked up from bandaging up Rory to wave at him. The Doctor stared at him in bewilderment. Harry sighed and motioned to himself saying, "The imbecile."

"OH! Harry! That Harry!" The Doctor was clearly excited as he jumped over to shake his hand enthusiastically. "It's so good to see you again! Have you met Amy and Rory?"

"Yes, I managed to introduce us while he was sewing up my chest," said Rory tartly from his position on the floor. The Doctor ignored him and kept talking.

"They're the Ponds. I travel with the Ponds now. The journalist and the nurse. Sort of like you and Sarah Jane. The journalist and the doctor. But not like you and Sarah Jane because they're married and you two are-" He stopped abruptly and turned swiftly on his foot to stare at Sarah Jane who wore a very amused look on her face.

"Give him a minute, he'll figure it out. He usually does." said Amy. The Doctor turned back to Harry who had managed to plaster an innocent expression on his face, albeit clearly in a robe and not much else.

"But...how...when did...Sarah?" His bewildered expression hadn't changed.

"When two people love each other very much..." she started to say with a sarcastic smile. The Doctor pouted a bit as Harry laughed at his expense. Sarah Jane kissed the Doctor gently on the cheek. "Why don't you take Amy and Rory downstairs and get something to eat and drink. Sky can show you where everything is while Harry and I put some proper clothes on."

Amy helped Rory to his feet. While supporting him on one arm, she grabbed a shell shocked Doctor with the other. "Thank you. I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

Sarah Jane smiled at the young woman in agreement. Sky bound out in front of them, asking what sort of tea they wanted. Harry closed up the medical kit and looked around the room. "We've got a lot of cleaning to do."

"Come on," she said with a smile. "Let's get some clothes on."

"I'll be honest with you, when I went to sleep last night I had no intention of starting the day at four o'clock in the morning."

"Really? It was on my top ten for the week." She nudged him teasingly with her shoulder. He just shook his head with a smile as they walked back to the bedroom they now shared. He reached for some trousers out of the closet while she dug around in one of her drawers.

"He looks so different."

"You mean young."

"Like a baby." Harry shook his head. "I hadn't seen him since that whole fiasco with the robot impersonators over thirty years ago."

"After he dropped me off in Aberdeen, I didn't see him for a long time. He left K9 for me, but other than that I didn't see him until a couple of years ago. He had a different face then. Said he had regenerated several times since he last saw me." She pulled her nightshirt off and began putting on a new button up shirt. Harry pulled on the trousers slowly.

"Left you."

"What?" She brushed her hair back and turned to look at him. Harry was standing with his hands on his hips with just his trousers on. There was a blank expression on his face.

"He _left_ you," he said slowly. "He _abandoned _you in Aberdeen. We're lucky he dropped you off on Earth. It could have been anywhere."

Sarah Jane stared back at him with a shocked expression. "Harry...that was a lifetime ago."

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you were able to forgive him." He ran his hands through his hair. "And to be honest with you- if he didn't look like a kid, I probably would have hit him."

"Harry!"

"I'm serious, Sarah! He broke your heart. He hurt you." Harry walked over to her and cupped her cheek with his hand. "And no one knows that like me. I don't care if he had a new face. He's still the same man that left you all by yourself and then didn't have the decency to come back for you."

"He didn't abandon me. He had to go." She shook her head.

"I just don't understand-"

"I'm not asking you to." Harry pulled away at her words. "Harry, that's not what I meant. He _did_ break my heart. And you have no idea how many times I wish I could jump back in that TARDIS and find myself back then and tell her to let you help her. I know that you were the one picking up the pieces that he left behind. But I've put it behind me. I've moved on- with you."

Sarah Jane wrapped her hands around his waist and pressed her cheek to his bare chest. He let out a deep sigh. "I just couldn't stand to watch you in pain, Sarah Jane. And I still can't. I know you were in love with him and know I couldn't ever begin to compare to-"

"Stop." She stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. "Harry Sullivan, I love you. You have _always_ been there for me and I know where my heart belongs. I know who has always been there for me and it wasn't him. I care about him. But I love you, Harry."

"Sarah Jane, I love you too." He wrapped his arms tightly around her. "And I have never doubted that you loved me too. It's just hard to forget what you went through..."

"For me, too. But it's history." She kissed his cheek and smiled. "Come on, put on a shirt and let's go downstairs. Amy and Rory seem nice."

"They do don't they? Think he always has a trio? And here I was thinking we were special..." She laughed as she walked out the door to talk to their guests.

Harry smiled as he finished getting dressed. Something she said stuck with him though and he couldn't help but agree. Sometimes he wished he could go back in time and tell himself to not give up on her. That someday, she would love him as much as he loved her. Because it was worth it. She would always be worth it.


End file.
